Love Is Hell

Bile traveled up my throat and I quickly emptied it into the toilet bowl.

Exhausted, I wiped my mouth and leaned against the bathroom wall. I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes, not exactly sure if they were just from the strain of vomiting, or from the memory of last night which kept replaying in my head.

There was a knock on the bathroom door. I sighed; I thought everyone was off the bus and getting ready for the show. Apparently though, I wasn't alone.

I slowly got up off the floor and opened the door.

"Are you ok?"

I smiled slightly at Kennedy, "Yeah, I'll be fine. I think it was something I ate."

He watched me, looking a bit unconvinced, but I smiled, trying to reassure him. He then nodded, "Ok, well I just wanted to let you know that we're going to start sound check and the show's going to be in an hour."

I nodded, "Ok. I don't know if I'm going to go today. I'm pretty tired."

Kennedy nodded, "Alright. I'll see you later then."

He turned around to leave, but I decided to make a split second decision and quickly stopped him.

"Wait!" He turned around.

"Um," I hesitated, "Who's Liz?" I questioned.

He looked confused for a second, "The only Liz I know is..." he trailed off.

"Garrett's ex." I confirmed, already knowing the answer.

He nodded slowly, "Uh yeah... wait how did you know?"

I just shrugged and turned around, not wanting to get into the events of last night. Kennedy seemed to understand and we both willingly dropped the subject.

"I guess we'll see you after the show." He said as he walked to the door.

I nodded. We exchanged goodbyes and then I watched him leave through the door.

&&

Kennedy's POV:

"Hey man," Tim said as I entered the dressing room, "Where's Lorraine?"

"She's not feeling well so she's going to stay on the bus." I explained as I grabbed my guitar and sat down and started tuning it, “She said it was probably something she ate.”

I was still confused by that. It’s not like she actually ate anything today. Or at least from what I saw, but I was with her pretty much the whole day. She used to be fine, but recently I’ve barely seen her even touch some sort of food. I don’t know what was going on with her, but I was starting to worry.
"Dude, my head hurts like a bitch!" John groaned as he entered the room. I rolled my eyes. Only John could be still be hung over and yet still be obnoxiously loud.

The rest of the guys trailed into the room behind him, much less enthusiastic. Surprisingly, Garrett looked the worse out of all of them.

"You all look like shit." Tim laughed.

The guys all mumbled in response.

"Are we going to do sound check or what?" Garrett asked as he grabbed his bass.

We all filed out of the dressing room and to the stage. Sound check lasted a little longer than I hoped seeing as everyone was still hung over. I just wanted to get done so I could talk with Garrett. He had to have said something to Lorraine. How else would she have known about Liz?

"Alright guys, that's good." Tim said as he looked at his watch, "We're going to start letting people in."

That was our cue to head backstage. I followed the guys back into the dressing room. John pulled out a bottle of JD from the mini fridge and began pouring glasses for everyone. I shook my head at him and looked around for Garrett. He was sitting on the couch, still looking quite hung over.

"Hey man," I said as I walked over and sat down next to him, "You're looking good."

He opened his eyes and glared at me, "My head is pounding."

I laughed. John walked over to us with two glasses in hand, "Come on Gary, I'm sure a bit of Jack can cheer you up." He said as he handed me a glass and held the other one out to him.

"I honestly can't think of anything worse to drink right now." Garrett said as he made a face at the glass.

John shrugged, "More for me," he said before he downed the alcohol.

I shook my head and turned back to Garrett.

“So, you were pretty bad last night.” I said.

“Really? Because I don’t remember shit from last night.” He said as he rubbed his temples.

I laughed, “That would make sense.”

“What happened? Did I do anything stupid?” he asked.

“Well,” I began, “I was pretty drunk myself, but not as bad as you. Lo had to help you on the bus and into bed. But that was after you blew chunks everywhere outside.”

Garrett groaned, “Shit, I don’t remember that. Crap, no wonder Lorraine was avoiding me this morning. Now I feel even worse.”

“Yeah well I don’t think that’s the only reason she avoided you…”

He cradled his head in his hands, “What did I do?” he asked hesitantly, probably knowing the answer would be bad.

I shook my head, “I don’t know, but she asked me about Liz.”

He looked up at me, “Liz? How would she know about Liz?”

I just looked at him like it was obvious. Which it was.

He seemed to finally realize or maybe remembered what happened because he groaned loudly.

“What did you do man?” I asked.

He ran his hands through his hair, “I don’t remember! You know me when I get drunk, I say the stupidest things. That’s why I try not to get drunk, I end up saying stuff I don’t even mean! I can only imagine what I said…”

We sat in silence. I watched as he pulled at his hair, obviously frustrated. Garrett was never like this. First of all, he would have never gotten drunk in the first place. What compelled him to get wasted I had no idea, but it must have been something that was bothering him enough to want to forget about. And then, since when did he start caring about what he said and what other people thought?

It finally was all making sense. I had to try my hardest to keep the grin off my face.

“What’s up with you man? Why did you even get drunk in the first place?” I asked.

He shrugged, “I had a lot of stuff on my mind.”

“Was Lorraine by any chance part of that stuff?” I asked casually as I took a sip from my glass.

Garrett quickly looked up at me and made a face, “What? Lorraine? No. Why would you think that?” he asked quickly.

I finally allowed myself to smirk.

“Why are you smiling?” he asked as he eyed me.

I just shrugged.

He rolled his eyes, “Whatever. But what am I going to do? I can’t remember what I said last night, but whatever it was I’m sure Lorraine hates me.”

This time I rolled my eyes. Sometimes he could be so oblivious. I really didn’t want to get involved, but Garrett obviously needed some help opening up his eyes.

“Dude, Lorraine doesn’t hate you.” I said, “You’re just going to have to make it up to her and do some serious ass kissing. Look, I don’t know what you said or did, but the first thing you’re going to want to do is find out and apologize. It has to do with Liz so it obviously couldn’t have been good. You’re going to have to show her that you’re over Liz.”

Garrett sighed.

I eyed him, “You are over Liz aren’t you?”

He didn’t say anything for a second, but the nodded, “Yeah.”

“Alright Garrett, listen.” I said seriously. “You better get your act together quickly and figure out what you want. I’m going to say this now because you’re no longer together so you shouldn’t care, but Liz was a bitch. You got to get over her. As for Lorraine, don’t play around with her feelings. She’s a great girl and if you hurt her I will have to hurt you.” I said. I gave him a pointed look, letting him know that I was dead serious.

Garrett seemed a bit shocked, but nodded slowly, “Yeah, I know. You’re right.”

“Man,” he groaned, “I’m such an asshole.”

I laughed, “Can’t argue with you on that one.”

He glared at me, but ended up chuckling.

“Where’s Lorraine?” he asked, “I should probably talk to her.”

“She’s on the bus. She wasn’t feeling well so she’s skipping the show. Talk to her after though because we’re probably going to go on soon.” I said, looking around for a clock.

Right on cue though, Tim stood up and clapped his hands, “Alright guys, get ready.”

We all got up and grabbed our instruments. Once we finished our preshow ritual of “We Like to Party” we followed Tim out of the dressing room and to the stage. I could already hear the fans chanting.

We waited at the side of the stage, Pat was waiting for his cue to go on the stage and begin the show. Finally, the lights dimmed and he ran out on stage to his drums. The fans cheered loudly. Before it was our turn to go on stage I quickly turned towards Garrett.

“Wait man, you’ve got to tell me,” I tried to shout over the crowd as I grabbed his arm, “Do you actually like Lorraine?”

He looked away from the crowd and towards me. He bit his lip, contemplating. Finally, he slightly shrugged.

“I don’t know… maybe,” he struggled, “You know me with all that feelings and shit. I haven’t liked someone new in a long time and honestly I don’t know how all that admitting your feelings and first date stuff works.”

I nodded and smiled at him as I patted his shoulder. That was good enough for me. Sure he didn’t actually say he liked her, but just by admitting what he did to me I knew Garrett liked Lorraine. I just hoped that Lorraine would be able to see that too. Lorraine was a great girl and Garrett was a good guy, he just had a harder time showing his feelings. I don’t know what he said to her last night, but I knew that Garrett was going to have to step up his game and start talking about his feelings if he wants Lorraine to know that he likes her.

I sighed. I didn’t want to get involved, but I had a feeling I was going to have to help both Garrett and Lorraine open up. And unfortunately, both of them were stubborn as hell. This was definitely going to be interesting.